Valley City Municipal Auditorium · Photo: Magicpiano · CC BY-SA 4.0Valley City’s library logs 2 visits per resident, against a typical 3.1 for libraries its size
Valley City Barnes County Public Library serves 10,583 people in and around Valley City from 2 locations. Last year it lent 44K books, movies and e-books and logged 21K visits.
What stands out about Valley City Barnes County Public Library
Read from the library’s own yearly report. The page puts what stands out first.
What’s behind Valley City’s civic life grade
On community nonprofits and volunteering, Valley City is ahead of 62% of U.S. towns, #8 of 22 in North Dakota. Valley City is graded on two of the three inputs. Valley City’s count of community nonprofits holds the grade up; the share of younger adults in volunteering groups pulls it down.
Civic life counts registered nonprofits, library visits and online volunteering groups, so it can miss civic life that runs through congregations, mutual aid or neighbors looking out for each other.
Library visits: IMLS Public Libraries Survey, FY2024. Nonprofits: IRS Exempt Organizations Business Master File, October 2026. Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. How TownRatings grades civic life →
51 community nonprofits are registered in Valley City
7.8 per 1,000 residents, against a U.S. town median of 3.7. The largest group: youth, sports & recreation.
Community nonprofits, by kind
Counted from the IRS list of tax-exempt organizations by mailing address (fractions where a ZIP code spans towns). Congregations are counted apart (12 here), since whether a church registers depends on its denomination, not the town.
5.9%
5.9% of Valley City’s Facebook users aged 25–44 belong to a volunteering or activism group, against 6.9% in the typical North Dakota town and 7.5% nationally.
Volunteering: Social Capital Atlas (Opportunity Insights), from data by Meta Platforms, Inc.; Chetty et al., Nature 2022. ZIP-code figures, weighted by where Valley City’s residents live; 2022.
A National Register landmark since 1979
Valley City Barnes County Public Library, 410 North Central Avenue, Valley City.
No late fees. E-books and audiobooks from home. Research databases: courses, journals, genealogy. Good at every Valley City Barnes County Public Library branch.
New in Valley City? The Handbook →Hours are the survey’s yearly average. Check the library’s own site for today’s hours.
Valley City Carnegie Library
Valley City Carnegie Library was added to the National Register of Historic Places on Oct 18, 1979. It is significant for its architecture and social history at the state level. Its architecture is described as Jeffersonian.
The Valley City Barnes County Public Library, also known as Valley City Public Library or the Valley City Carnegie Library, in Valley City, North Dakota, United States, is a Carnegie library that was built in 1903. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979 and still contains an original Tiffany window.
More about the building →Other Valley City Barnes County Public Library branches in Valley City
Ahead of most similar-size libraries on 2 of 8 measures
Per resident, against libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people across the U.S.
Valley City Barnes County Public Library serves 10,583 people, so it’s measured against U.S. libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000.
Every hour the doors are open, about 9 items go out
Fiscal year 2024, for the whole Valley City Barnes County Public Library system. The library’s own count.
Mostly books and media off the shelf
44K loans last year: print, kids’ and digital.
17,408 e-books, e-audiobooks and streams last year. Borrow from home with your card, plus research databases: courses, journals, genealogy and more.
About 3 kids’ programs a week
Story times, clubs, classes and events, across the whole system, by who they’re for.
Programs last year by age group
story times and programs a week for ages 0–5, on average.
For every $1 it spends, the library lends about $2.18 worth
Set what you’d borrow in a month. It starts at what the average Valley City cardholder borrows.
Typical for a library this size: $43. Operating budget $359K.
Last year the library lent and hosted about $784K worth of books, e-books, programs and Wi-Fi on a $359K budget.
Fine-free. No late fees on books returned late.
Retail prices are typical, rounded down: a new book $17, a kids’ book $12, an e-book or e-audiobook $15, a movie rental $4, a class or program $10, a computer or Wi-Fi session $3. The average cardholder’s month = the library’s yearly loans, attendance and Wi-Fi sessions ÷ its 2,985 cardholders ÷ 12.
What this data can and can’t tell you
From the Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024.
- System-wide. Valley City Barnes County Public Library serves 10,583 people in and around Valley City, so the yearly numbers cover all of them, not just Valley City.
Hours are the survey’s yearly average; libraries are compared with others serving about as many people. How TownRatings uses library figures →
Questions about the library and civic life in Valley City
Does Valley City have a public library?
Yes. Valley City Barnes County Public Library, 410 North Central Avenue, serves 10,583 people in and around Valley City (the survey’s count) and is open about 46 hours a week, averaged over the year.
Is Valley City Barnes County Public Library fine-free? Does it lend e-books?
Yes to both: no late fees, and e-books, audiobooks and research databases with a card (the library’s 2024 survey report).
How busy is Valley City’s library?
It logged 2.0 visits and lent 4.2 items per resident in 2024, against a typical 3.1 visits for libraries serving 10,000 to 25,000 people.
What is Valley City’s civic life grade?
B Valley City is ahead of 62% of U.S. towns on civic life, #8 of 22 in North Dakota. The grade combines library visits per resident, community nonprofits per 1,000 residents and the share of adults 25–44 in volunteering groups. It’s a character grade, so it isn’t part of the overall grade. How it works.
Book talk
Reading, story times and the library in Valley City.
Libraries: Institute of Museum and Library Services, Public Libraries Survey, fiscal year 2024. Each library reports its own numbers. Distances are straight-line from the town center. Building history: National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places; photo via Wikimedia Commons. “What your card is worth” uses typical retail prices and is an estimate, not an official figure.